Under the Moon
by Ryou VeRua
Summary: In a world where the church Valon lived in was never burned down, he faces a difficult choice. -implied Conquestshipping- -for contest-


**Under the Moon**

Since Valon is purely anime-verse, I figured I could make an anime reference from another season. It'll be obvious if you've watched it all and I believe you are all intelligent readers.

Anyway, here's the warning. I have NOT watched the DOMA arc. I learned about Valon for this contest by reading fics and biographies about him. And I still end up doing a 'what if'...

**Disclaimer**: Short, weird... The only think likeable about the story are the characters. :P And you think the person who wrote the fic would try laying claim to them? I think _not._ (I said _good day!_)

* * *

Valon had never been partial to the night, but as any loyal son would, he volunteered to watch the church. Why he would do such a thing, when he knew firsthand how downright creepy a church could be at night, was beyond him when nightfall actually came. It was only when he saw Mother kneeling before the pulpit that he would remember.

The church was new; unlike the old one, torn down a few years ago when the old floorboards creaked with every step and brittle pieces of limestone fell from the ceiling when the doors were shut too hard. Valon did not like it, though he ceased his declarations of no longer having a home when Mother was upset by it.

A loud crack outside made him jump. He rushed out the entrance, but it was only a branch, buffeted for too long by the winds of the storm. It was all that Valon needed, really, a sleepless night in the new church and a storm. At least the last time a storm had hit the church, he had been fortunate enough to have company.

-o-O-o-O-o-

_It was past midnight when the doors of the church opened and woke Valon from an uncomfortable sleep. Though he did not enjoy being sprawled across the bench, it was the only real option besides the floor. It seemed that he was not meant to get a good night's sleep, however. Stretching and miserable, he pushed himself up to see who had dared to disturb him._

"_Who's there?" he shouted. He did not have to tell Mother if he got into one fight on his watch, he mused._

_Dripping water all over the carpet the figure stood stock-still, staring at Valon, a shivering mess of moonlight hair and pale skin._

"_Please," the figure begged, "Please help me. The voice won't leave."_

-o-O-o-O-o-

Valon did not have friends or any sort of relationship except with the nun he called Mother. Other 'brothers' and 'sisters' had come and gone over the years, but he was the only one that had stayed with her. It was a lonely life, but one he did not mind, though Mother would sometimes push him in the direction of a pretty choir girl. They were all vain attempts but he humoured her anyway.

It was not for a lack of want. Mother had introduced a higher power into his life and it was by this higher power that he swore that when he met the one woman he was meant to be with, he would know.

-o-O-o-O-o-

_The boy had come back a few nights ago on a clearer night, and in much higher spirits. Why he had come to the church, practically in the middle of nowhere, was beyond Valon, but he grudgingly let him in anyway, if only to have company for the night. When the boy pulled out a pack of cards from his pocket, Valon had looked at them with a bit of interest; he had seen, a few times, the popular card game that everyone talked about. However, this was a different type of deck altogether._

"_The wheel of fortune," the boy said softly. Three cards, ornately decorated, were laid out in between the two of them on the floor. The boy's finger traced the spokes of the wheel before landing on the crowned woman, sitting primly on the top._

_Valon looked at the card for a moment before looking back up at him."I think I can guess what this means. Good luck versus bad luck or something, right?"_

_The boy looked at him. "It's a sign of good luck. And since it represents your past..."_

_Valon was not amused. "I am an orphan. You call that good luck?" Only the self-restraint Mother had taught him kept him from ripping the card in half._

_The boy smiled. "You have a place to live, don't you?"_

"_Yeah, but –"_

"_Someone to call family?"_

"_Well, yeah, but –"_

"_Then this could be what the card is telling you. Or perhaps it is something you aren't aware of, a disaster avoided, something bigger than you, completely out of your control..." The boy trailed off. Valon recognized his haunted gaze from the night they met and, not knowing what to do, grabbed his shoulder. The boy started and focused back on him._

"_I'm sorry," said the boy quietly._

"_Don't be sorry," said Valon, "just get on with it. __It's finally starting to get interesting.__"_

-o-O-o-O-o-

When he heard the footsteps and the great wooden doors swinging shut, the first thought that went through Valon's head was that the boy had come back again. But there was something different about the footsteps; they were not the light footsteps of the wraith-like boy but sharper, more delicate, more _real_.

And as the slender figure stumbled down the aisle, the moonlight streaming in through the stain glass windows accentuated the curves of her body and brought all sorts of unsavoury thoughts to his head that would make Mother blush.

This time he was not caught unawares on the bench; instead, with a regal air about him, he emerged from the side, past the candelabras and the organ that stretched into the darkness up the wall.

Her shoulders shook and her golden hair was matted and unkempt and wet, sticking to her cheeks.

"Please," she begged, "Please help me. The voice won't leave."

-o-O-o-O-o-

"_The moon." His face betrayed no emotion – not that this was different than usual._

"_Hold on, hold on, let me guess what this one means..."_

_The boy watched him patiently as he thought, wringing his hands, scratching his cheek, running a hand through one of his messy spikes of hair, anything and everything that would help the answer come to him. Finally he sighed. "I don't know... knowledge?"_

_To the boy's credit, he did not laugh, but merely smiled in a manner that was slightly infuriating to Valon. "Not exactly. There are a few meanings for this one, but the more general one is decisions. This one is for your present."_

_Valon snorted. "The biggest decision I had to make recently was whether to have oatmeal or cereal for breakfast."_

_The look on the boy's face should have unsettled him, but Valon instead drank it in and savoured his victory. This was the first time that he, albeit indirectly, had managed to get such an honest display of emotion from him._

"_This can't be wrong..." he mumbled; Valon had to strain to hear him. He could not catch the rest of what he said, but was quick to straighten up and act uninterested when the boy turned his solemn gaze back on him._

"_So?" Valon said, faking a yawn, "what did you get from them?"_

_The boy seemed unsure, but his voice was as quiet and confident as it had been before. "In a few days time, perhaps in the next week, you'll be faced with a decision that could change your life. There are a few things this applies to..."_

-o-O-o-O-o-

He had spread his jacket across a bench for her as he had done for the boy on the first night. It was a kind gesture, but like last time, a useless one. The worst of it was his imagination. As the woman lay in front of him, tossing and turning, calling out a foreign name with fear, he had already imagined her with his own name at her lips and as the adopted son of a nun, the shame was more than he could bear.

"Malik," she cried, tears running down to the tip of her nose and dripping onto the floor, "stop, please, get him _away_ –"

Valon desperately wanted to do more and as he searched himself, all too aware of the disapproving looks of the Son and the prophets depicted in the stain glass windows, he could not find any rational reasons for holding her close as she slept or...

"J-Jou... _Jounouchi –_."

-o-O-o-O-o-

"_The three of swords is your future."_

_The quip Valon had ready died in his throat when he caught a glimpse of his face._

"_You look like someone died. Come on! You don't think I can take it?"_

_The boy did not even smile. _"_The card's meaning is heart break and sorrow. I don't think I need to go into detail."_

_Valon sat for a moment before laughing weakly. "And this is my future?"_

_The boy swept up the cards in one graceful movement before looking up at him._

"_These readings don't predict a future set in stone."_

_And in a symbolic gesture that Valon would never understand, he touched his left forearm and then his chest. "You still have a choice."_

-o-O-o-O-o-

She was gone the next morning before he woke, at the crack of dawn, and there was an ache in his heart that he could not rationalize. He knew he would never see her again, knew that he could never see her again. He had not asked her for her name for that very purpose and yet her image haunted him in his sleep and followed him in his waking moments.

A month later, Valon, hidden in the pulpit, watched as the decorated glass came crashing down from all sides, down on the moonlit boy who stood in the centre of the chaos, screaming and screaming. But _she_ was there, behind him, smiling at Valon, fading away in the distance...

Valon turned away from her and fled to the basement, where Mother slept silently. He took her hand and led her out the back, away from the church.

And then one of the lit candelabras fell.

* * *

Sorry! My friend helped me realize that what I thought was obvious (well, I did make the fic, so it's obvious to me) is not obvious to the readers: what Ryou represents. I don't want to outright say it, but I think it'll become clear pretty fast now.

If I'm writing with DOMA characters, I'm gonna make sure I have at least one mention of someone I like. :) Yeah, I figure that even in the anime-verse, that church from Season 5 could be rebuilt from Valon's old burnt down church. So... yeah.

By Neko's request: Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free... You are a pirate!

http : // cristgaming . com / pirate . swf

Pure crack.


End file.
